Bank fixes faulty ATM that left Denny mum short at Christmas

Tracey Hendry at the ATM in Stirling Street, Denny, that has been plauged by problems

Chris McCall

A high street ATM plagued by problems in recent months left a mother £150 out of pocket on Christmas morning when it failed to issue her cash.

Tracey Hendry tried to lift the money from the bank machine at the Co-operative store in Stirling Street, Denny, to give to her son James (13) for Christmas.

But she was stunned when an error message appeared on the ATM screen and no cash emerged.

The 46-year-old from Dunipace, a staff nurse at Forth Valley Royal Hospital, is still waiting for her bank, RBS, to refund her.

She said: “I pressed the button, it made a whirring noise, and then the error message appeared.

“I will get the money back eventually, but because of the public holidays the whole thing has been delayed.

“I know I’m not the only one to lose money from this ATM. It’s been so bad that I’ve heard Co-op staff telling customers to avoid using it and get cashback instead.”

The Falkirk Herald reported last year that the bank machine in question was regularly targeted by criminal gangs who install ‘skimming’ devices, which can capture a person’s pin code.

A spokeswoman for The Co-operative Bank apologised for the technical fault in the machine and said it had now been fixed.

She said: “We can confirm that our ATM on Stirling Street was affected by a technical fault in late December which was rectified by our engineers on December 31.

“If a customer believes they have incorrectly had money debited from their account they should contact their bank for a refund. As is standard practice across the industry this will be resolved within 15 working days of the date of the claim.

“We would like to apologise to any customers inconvenienced by this and would like to reassure customers that the ATM is now working normally.

“On the issue of security, we take this extremely seriously and we constantly review our ATMs to ensure the highest levels of security.”